Asian Theme

This card was made using Chocolate Baroque's new clear stamps!  I like the way is looks like the water is coming through the frame.  The stamp sets I used are:  Lily Pad, which you can see by clicking on this link, http://www.chocolatebaroque.com/Lily-Pad-Unmounted-Clear-stamp-sheet--A5_p_4560.html, and Moonlit Waterfall, here - http://www.chocolatebaroque.com/Moonlit-Waterfall-Unmounted-Clear-stamp-sheet--A5_p_4593.html

 

 

In this closeup, you can see the brown fuzz on the cattails, and the some of the dimension on the card.

This bird was colored in with markers first, then I used Barbara Trombley's Art Glitter to fill parts in.

A vase but not a vase (by Debbie)

Hi Folks. I thought I'd show a card today that I made a little while ago. I was telling a friend about it on Sunday at a local craft show when she was purchasing some of Chocolate Baroque Halloween Clear Stamps.

I have turned the lantern upside down to look like a vase. The tassel was masked so the black ink didn't go on to it. Another mask was used to cover the top of the vase so I could place the blossom branch in it. I coloured with promarkers and stamped a sentiment from Best Relative Ever. A couple of pearls and matting onto black finished off the card. Thanks for visiting, Debbie

Lantern Easel Card (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here again with a little easel card using one of the clear stamps from 'Chinese Lanterns'

'

I made a little shaped easel card using nestabilities and cut an aperture in the top part of the easel to hold the focal image which is stamped on vellum. I embossed the lantern from the reverse with a ball tool and added a little colour with coloursoft pencils. The sentiment and frame are  from 'Best Relative Ever'. stamped with versamark and embossed with WOW gold detail EP, I used a gold krylon pen around the edges. Glenda has the Krylon pens on offer at the minute (have a look here in special offers)

To prop the easel up I used the die cut shape from cutting out the aperture and added some of the lovely cherry blossoms from Chocolate Baroque and some paper roses. Here's another photo showing the side view, I've popped a little battery tea light in to shine through the lantern

Thanks for popping by

I hope you're enjoying the new clear stamps as much as I am

Claire xx

Oriental Crane (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with another sample using the 'Oriental Crane' set of clear stamps. While I love rubber stamps, clear stamps are perfect for creating a little scene as you can see exactly where you are stamping.

The background was created with distress inks (Tumbled Class, Peeled Paint and Tea Dye), blended on to Southfield White card and then splashed with water to give a mottled effect. I over stamped the background with dragonflies and bamboo stamps from 'Moonlit Waterfall'. 

I stamped the image with versafine ink and coloured with distress markers. I used some black card for matting and layering and added an oriental coin charm attached with some shimmery braid.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Willow Pattern (posted by Claire)

Hello, Claire here with another project using the beautiful new 'Oriental Crane' stamp sheet

I've used memento inks and glossy card for this project, the focal image made me think of all the lovely old 'Willow Pattern' chine that my grandma used to have in her china cabinet so I took inspiration from that to create this card. I've used various shades of blue memento inks to stamp the images, added a doily from my stash, some faux pearls, ribbon in shades of blue and white and finished off with a button and a tiny little bow.

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Celebrating Friendship

Good morning all. My card today is a clean and simple card that uses a combination of the new clear stamps. I love the way that these new stamps can be mixed up. The lanterns are from Chinese Lanterns and the sentiment is from Best Relative Ever.

I used Memento black ink to stamp the lanterns and coloured with alcohol pens. It's not easy to see on the photograph but I drew around the edge of the lanterns with a light grey to give them dimension. The words are stamped individually and the beauty of clear stamps is that the can be lined up so easily. I matted onto black card and fixed to a white base card. I have a special friend who is having nearing the end of her chemotherapy and this card will be heading over to her in a few weeks as I want to hand deliver it but I've been full of cold and have stayed away as not to pass it to her. Have a good Wednesday. Debbie

Important message from Glenda - Giveaway Winners, please claim your prizes!

Hi everyone

We have now caught up with ourselves and all of your pre-orders for clear stamps have shipped - yay!  Adrian has been an absolute star and is now busy with a couple of big trade orders before topping up our website stock.  We do have stock of all the sets (at the time of writing this), but some are quite low so please use the waitlist feature - it really helps us to plan the production schedule.

So after a mammoth week of printing, packing, picking and posting, I thought I'd better catch up with all the giveways and get some prizes out.

Thank you to all of you who leave comments.  Please check to see if you are one of our lucky winners and if you are, can you send me an email and confirm your postal address.  Please can you claim your prize by Friday 5th October 2012.

1. Clear Stamp Winners

Clare *Littlebear*6 September 2012 13:51

They are all gorgeous, but I think my favourite is Lily Pad.
Clare x

 

mamapez56 September 2012 19:41

These all look good though I don't do Halloween. I love the oriental set. All 'create a scene' stamps do it for me. I also much prefer working with clear stamps so this is a good move for me. Kate

 

JanetV6 September 2012 13:38

Hi Glenda
Fantastic stamps as always and the packaging is a great idea.

Love Janet V

2. Cut 'n' Dry Pack Winner

The lucky winner of the Cut 'n' Dry twin pack is

The Good Fairy6 September 2012 20:45

The more I see these stamps, the more I like them and not all of them are strictly halloween so they will get more than one outing a year.

3. AquaMarker Winner

 The lucky winner of the AquaMarker Landscape painting set is

Joan6 September 2012 17:58

yes, please. I'd love to try the aquamarkers, then I would have to get some of the lovely new stamps to use them with!!

4. Essential Card Pack Winner

 The lucky winner of the Essential Card Pack is

Jeanne8 September 2012 09:38

I think your instructions were so clear (as are these lovely stamps! - sorry about the pun!) that you made it easy for us to create a scene. It makes me look at all the stamps in a new way. Thanks for the inspiration. Lucky you getting all the new stamps to work with!
Jeannie E.

And finally - I'm way behind doing this one from the beginning of the month - the launch kinda overtook our lives for a while!

5. Pears & Baubles Winner

Karen3 September 2012 22:35

Another gorgeous set of stamps.......love those pears; would look really great done with gilding flakes but make fab cards on the kraft card.

Karen :o)

Moonlit Waterfall (posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with a card using stamps from Moonlit Waterfall, one of the new sets of clear stamps. 

The focal image is coloured with distress markers, they blend so easily and make colouring so quick and easy. I added some highlights with a white inkssentials gel pen.

I stamped and embossed the main image again with WOW Gold detail EP on black card and cut out the frame, layering it up over the image with 3d foam for some depth. I didn't think this beautiful little scene needed a lot of embellishments so I created a background using the delicate dragonfly silhouette stamps from the same stamp sheet. I stamped the dragonflies with versamark and again embossed with gold EP. To finish off I've added some gold braid and a glossy black button from my stash.

Thanks for visiting and for taking the time to comment. I hope you're enjoying these beautiful new stamps as much as I am. 

Claire xx

Enjoying the Sunset

I have been so excited about the new clear stamps for a while now. I'm sure when people start to play with the new designs they will love them as much as the Design Team do.

My card was created by stamping the Crane first onto white card and then make a mask to cover it. I then cut it with a nestability and taped the shape to the cut to frame so that when I used the distress ink it would leave a white border. I used Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed for the sunset and Stormy Sky for the water. I cut a larger black frame to mount on. I decided to keep the base card simple so that the main image popped out from the background so I only stamped with black ink. There's lots more inspiration to follow from the team. Enjoy. Debbie

Ivy Trails (posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with a card made with some of the new clear stamps, this time I've used 'Ivy Trails' the beautiful new Christmas stamps. 

I stamped the images in black archival ink except for the sentiment which I stamped with versamark and embossed with gold detail WOW embossing powder. I coloured the image with distress markers and lightly inked around the edges with tea dye and pumice stone distress inks. I've used gold mirri card and  ivy green card for matting and layering. 

Thanks for visiting today and for all your lovely comments.

Claire xx

Snowy Owl Kisses for Whoooooo!

Hello, everyone!  This new set of stamps, just in time to use for Christmas, is just too cute!  I'm getting a head-start on my supply of cards for the holidays!   I was going through a broken plastic cardstock and paper container, when I came across this red and white background paper - perfect for these stamps!  The stamp set is called Christmas Creatures, (shown below) released this month by Chocolate Baroque!  (click on the name, and it will take you directly to the page on the Chocolate Baroque site)  I absolutely love owls, and I am a fan of the Snowy Owl.  I think this little guy is in need of a trip to the hair salon, though!

 

I went out into the backyard, and found a little stick to use as her perch.  I used a branch punch and cut just two sets of the three "toes" from the ends of the branch for Owl's feet.  I cut apart some white turkey feathers from my stash, and glued them in layers over the stamped image.  I found some shiny black rhinestones to use for her eyes.

Below, I wanted to show that the mistletoeflake had gotten stuck in the tree branches, and part of it was dangling down over the owl's head.  Am I overthinking this?  The snowflake is from the Gift of Christmas set, shown below.

 

I love the fact that this little bird even decorated her small plain tree with a beautiful bauble!

Christmas Creatures

The Gift of Christmas stamp set


I hope you've enjoyed your visit, leave with some inspiration, and ordered your new clear stamps!  You can save some money if you order the two sets as a "Multi-Buy"!  Click here to see this offer.

Crane with Kanzashi Flower (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, here's a sample with the new clear stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I have created a background using Spun Sugar Distress Ink. I then stamped a blossom stamp from the Oriental Crane stamp plate over the background, and coloured in the flowers using a pencil. I stamped the crane image onto a piece of oval shaped card, edging this with Distress Ink as before. I coloured the image in with pencils.

I made a Japanese Kanzashi flower using a tutorial I found on Pinterest. I used crinoline material, and sprayed it with Distress reinker and water when I was finished. I added a jewellery component from my craft stash, and a couple of die cut leaves.

Keep a look out for more creations by my Design Team mates using these great stamps. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Spooky (posted by Claire)

Hi there, Claire here with a little 'Spooky' inspiration using the new clear Halloween stamps 'Witches Brew. I love to create scenes with rubber stamps and clear stamps make it so much easier as you can position your images really easily

I've used all the stamps from the set on this project. I started with the lovely cobweb stamp and created a background by brayering Tangelo Memento ink on to glossy cardstock. I love memento inks for brayering.

The Spooky scene was made using PanPastels. I made a mask for the moon and positioned it where I wanted the image to go and then created the sky with Paynes Grey, Violet and a little black Panpastel. I added the ground using Chromium Oxide green panpastel with a little black. I removed the moon mask and stamped in the images with versamark, as the stamps are clear you can position your moon in exactly the right place. Next came the witch, in the foregroud and I added the sentiment in the sky. They are all embossed with holographic black EP for a little spooky sparkle. Its so easy to create sky effects with PanPastels, I wanted to add some misty clouds around the moon so I used the shading on the stamp as a guide and lightly used a pencil eraser to remove some of the panpastel to create a misty effect. I added some shadows to the foreground with a little black panpastel.

I stamped the fence stamps on acetate, embossed with the same embossing powder and cut them out, leaving the acetate a little longer than the scene panel. I scored and folded the acetate to curve around the scene slighly and then matted the image on black card. As a finishing touch I used an inksentials white pen to add a few stars to the sky.

Thanks for visiting today. Keep popping back as we've got lots more projects using the new stamps to share with you

Claire xx

In the Frame (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, here's a sample using the great new clear stamps from Chocolate Baroque. I have used the Best Relative Ever stamp set and stamped one of the great little frames onto a Nestability shape that I have cut out and coloured with Pan Pastels. I stamped the frame and the sentiment with Versamark ink, and swiped over the top with more Pan Pastels. The beauty of these clear stamps is that you can get the placement exactly where you want them.

I created a background by using one of the new Prima masks available on the website, and covered this with texture paste. Once this had dried, I used Pan Pastels to create a soft background, and stamped some co-ordinating swirls in each corner. These came from the Butterfly Flourish Swirls stamp set. I added a couple of wooden butterflies and some handmade flowers to finish.

Poinsettia Joy

Hello!  Now, don't you just LOVE these images?  The Poinsettia flowers and the word "Joy" are from one of Chocolate Baroque's new clear stamp sets, called Joyful Christmas being released this month!  The chapel image is from a new clear set released last month, called Christmas Creatures.  That's one of the reasons I love, love, love Chocolate Baroque stamps - they coordinate so well with other stamps they produce!

The chapel image was heat embossed in gold, then colored in with
Stampin' Up and Copic markers.

This card was very easy to make.   It consists of two different styles of image, the shadowed chapel image, and the stylized poinsettia's.  The ribbon is 1" wide burgundy grosgrain.  I hope you've been inspired, and please come back soon for more new and awesome stamps and examples!

Build a WOL!

I hope you have been enjoying the day so far, and have been inspired by the beautiful card designs from Glenda.  The brand new Chocolate Baroque clear stamp collection is just amazing - I have had an absolute ball playing, er I mean testing them.  The detail is exquisite as you would expect from a CB stamp and the fact that you can see through them opens up all sorts of possibilities for creating scenes and mix and matching with existing rubber stamps.

When I saw the gorgeous little owl on the Batty Owl set I just knew I wanted to show you how you can use just one clear stamp to create a whole picture. So here is a small step by step guide to help you recreate my little owl scene.

1. First, ink up the owl image with Versafine Vintage Sepia and stamp onto a piece of A5 thick white cardstock - you will be colouring the images with markers so you need to use a smooth card to avoid 'bleeding'.

2. Clean your stamp with a baby wipe and dry thoroughly, then re-ink just the wall part of the image; clean off unwanted ink where it may have touched other areas of the image.  Because you can see through the stamp you can line up the wall with the stamped image.

 3. Repeat step 2 again, making sure you remove any stray ink from other areas of your stamp.

4. Now ink up the left part of the wall, again check for stray ink, and clean off the bottom edge of the ivy branch so that only the leaves are showing.

5. Line up with the previously stamped sections of the wall, stamp and then allow to dry.

6. Colour your images with markers of your choice, I used a combination of Promarkers and Aquamarkers.  Set aside to dry thoroughly.

7. To complete my design I trimmed the scene, embossed a piece of A5 card which I then matted onto the front of a folded A5 card. I attached the coloured scene to a piece of Tim Holtz Dried Marigold Distressed cardstock cut from the Core'dinations 12" x 12" pad and positioned as shown in the final photo.

I hope this has given you an idea of how versatile the new Chocolate Baroque clear stamps are going to be and keep watching for more inspirational ideas from my talented fellow Design Teamies.

Enjoy
Lesley

ONLINE PARTY GIVEAWAY

In celebration of our new product launch, we are giving away an Essential Card Pack which contains 3 types of cardstock.

Leave us a comment below and it could be your lucky day!

Lily Pad Scene

The card above was partly drawn, partly stamped.  It's one of the things I love about stamping - a few hand drawn lines can give you a whole new look and that makes your stamps even more versatile.

In the video below I show you a simpler version of connecting up stamped elements to create a scene.  I coloured it, and the one above, with Aquamarkers.   I also added coloured pencil over the top with a deliberate stylised look of the dark edges against the pale colours.


Aquamarkers contain watercolour paint which means they behave differently to ink based markers which tend to soak into the paper much quicker.  Watercolour blends in a different way and can even be 'lifted' with kitchen towel if you make a mistake.  For scenes like this, I like the Aquamarkers for the way the pigments react to water and create a natural, painterly look, as opposed to the even flat colouring you get with Copics or Promarkers.

Of course, if you are in a hurry or not confident with creating your own scenes, there's a beautiful one all done for you on Moonlit Waterfall - isn't this a gorgeous stamp.

Lesley will be blogging at 4pm with a super little owl project and remember you can chat with us today on the Chocolate Baroque community site.

ONLINE PARTY GIVEAWAY

In celebration of our new product launch, we are giving away an Aquamarker Landscape Painting Set!

Leave us a comment below and it could be your lucky day!

Happy Halloween

I have been playing with our clear Halloween sets, Batty Owls and Witches Brew.   I've gone for a bright colour scheme on all of these using Distress Inks.

Below you'll find instructions for the card on the right and a video which shows how the cards on the left were made.  Even if you're not into Halloween, I hope you find the ideas useful.

Spooky Card

You will need:

• Onyx Black Versafine
• Distress Inks: Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Grass, Crushed Olive
• Thick White Card
• Polychromos pencils (or other waxy pencils such as Coloursoft)
• Black Glossy Card
• Black pearlescent card

To make card:

1. Stamp the witch and the moonlit castle with Onyx Black onto thick white card and blast with a heat tool to dry thoroughly.  If it's not dry, it will smudge in the next step.
2. Colour the moon with pencils - make sure they are not water soluble pencils, you want waxy pencils as the colouring will act as a resist to the distress inks.
3. Use a piece of Cut'n'Dry or a blending tool and rub the Mustard Seed around the moon and outward along the middle section of the card.  Blend Spiced Marmalade down from the top and Crushed Olive up from the bottom.  Strengthen the very top with Barn Door and the bottom with Mowed Grass.
4. Add a few bats (from Spookylicious) if required and stamp the word Spooky above the witch.  Go round the edge with the cobweb corner using Onyx Black.
5. Cut a piece of black glossy card and sand the edges.  Rub Spiced Marmalade over the sanded areas and polish dry with kitchen towel.
6. Layer up the stamped image onto the distressed glossy card and stick to a folded black pearlescent card.  Finish with ribbon or trim.

Misty Bats Card

This next card uses the same materials and inking techniques and shows you how you easy it is to line up the clear stamps accurately.

 

Here's a video (about 9 minutes) showing you how the whole card was built up.  

Thanks for watching and don't forget you can chat live to us throughout today on the Chocolate Baroque community site.

ONLINE PARTY GIVEAWAY

In celebration of our new product launch, we are giving away multi pack of Cut 'n' Dry - one each of the foam and the felt!

Leave us a comment below and it could be your lucky day!